The Color Blue
by Rjalker
Summary: When Jolinar is forced to take a host without their consent in order to keep both of them alive, nothing goes as planned, and nothing will ever be the same again.


The air burned at her like fire, and rocks cut into her soft flesh as she scrabbled her way across the ground.

This wasn't how it was supposed to go. This was dangerous. She could die. The _human_ could die.

But she was already dying. A staff blast had grazed the side of her head with its full force.

The reek of burnt hair and blood had swamped all of her senses in the instant before she was

forced to leave Quinta.

There was nothing she would be able to do for him. He was gone.

The sorrow almost crippled her, but she forced herself to remember that she was all that remained of him, and of Rosha, and of Nihmat. If she died, there would be no one to remember them as only she could.

That was the knowledge that kept her going, even as the sun scorched her raw with its oppressive heat, and her consciousness struggled to tame the instincts urging her toward the water that lay a few feet away.

If she didn't reach the human now lying barely a few inches away from her, the woman would die, and she'd take Jolinar with her. Because if she didn't get a new host soon, her widow to get back to the Tok'ra before they gated to a new world without her.

She'd been gone too long. They had to move soon. If she'd been captured, they had only her word that she would rather die than betray them.

One of the human's companions was running toward them, shouting at the top of their lungs, calling an unintelligible name as they ran.

Their footsteps shook the ground with each impact, drawing ever closer.

She was almost there. Just one more second and the unconscious woman's lips would be close enough for her to lunge forward and into her mouth so that she could get to the brainstem and save both of their lives.

"_Carter!_"

The human was almost upon them. One more stride, one more leap over the bodies and debris that littered the rocky shore, and it would be too late for both of them.

She had no doubt that if the human would crush her beneath his boot the moment he set eyes on her. The Tok'ra were a well-guarded secret that few knew as anything more than stories told at night around secluded campfires.

The human was only feet away. The unconscious woman's body was blocking her from their sight, but not for long.

"Carter!" The voice was filled with fear. _For_ the unconscious woman, and not because of the weapons still fire filling the air around him with every second. At any moment, the human could have turned back. He was the only one besides the woman that hadn't yet retreated through the Chappa'ai.

But he hadn't fled to safety. He wasn't going to leave her behind.

So more than a companion, then.

She might have found it touching, if only he hadn't been the only person standing in the way of her survival.

And he was growing closer with every second that passed.

Fear coursed through her body, and for a single, horrifying moment, she wasn't sure she would be able to make it to the safety of the human's body before she was spotted.

But then the tips her mandibles brushed across the smooth texture of the woman-Carter?-'s lips, and her instincts switched gears so quickly that she didn't even have time to _tell_ herself to move forward before she found herself already through the mouth and burrowing through the soft tissue at the back of the throat, and wrapping herself around the spine, bringing the gag reflex back to life as quickly as she could, forcing the body to spit out the blood that now filled its mouth as the price for their shared salvation.

The taste was metallic on her tongue, but the pain that sent her entire body-the woman's body, Carter's body-spasming against the ground as she struggled to open her eyes, was worse.

She could feel it now, the gaping wound in the side of the woman's head. Her skull had been cracked, her skin burnt and shrivelled with the unforgiving heat of the Jaffa weapon that had struck her as she ran to rescue the fallen Quinta. Even with her help, there was no guarantee she would survive.

But Jolinar hadn't lived over a century to give up just because of a cracked skull. Already, her strength-weakened as it was from the injuries she'd sustained while waiting dormant in Quinta-was spreading throughout Carter's body, through her veins, into her heart, every single cell was waking from the darkness that had almost taken them over, surging with renewed energy.

She knew it wouldn't last long. Soon she would grow weak. Unless she blended fully with the woman-which she _wasn't going to do_, because this was temporary, because she was going to leave as soon as she was able to so that the woman could live out her life unburdened by an unwanted symbiote-she would only have what strength remained.

And she was using all that strength to heal the grievous wound that had been inflicted on Carter's head. From the inside out, she was already healing the wound, accelerating the healing process so that, even after only a few seconds had passed, the crack in the skull was already starting to close over.

But there was only so much she could do, and before she had even managed to close the gap by a centimetre, the strength left her as she fully assimilated to the new body. Pain wracked itself down her spine, and she was immensely glad the woman was still unconscious.

"Carter!" The voice was in her ear suddenly, shockingly loud even as it wavered in and out of focus with the nausea and confusion quickly catching up with her until even when she managed to open her eyes, she saw nothing but swirling masses of spinning colors that refused to settle into a clear image.

Hands wrapped around her arms, and the next thing she knew, she was in the air, and the human was _carrying her_ across the rock gravel, and the Jaffa were still advancing, but the human somehow seemed to dodge every blast.

With every step, the pain in her head grew, and the fog that had covered the woman's mind when she first entered her body was swirling ever close, threatening to drag her down into the abyss.

But she had to stay awake. She had to stay conscious. If she passed out, and the humans tried to help the woman, and their technology was as advanced as the rumors had held that it was, then they would find her.

And while the man carrying her through a hail of staff blasts right now, he didn't know that she was there.

She had a feeling that his attitude toward the woman in his arms would change drastically once the truth was revealed.

But the fog was creeping up her spine, and numbing her senses. Any moment now, and she would disappear entirely.

Footsteps beat against the stone at the base of the Chappa'ai, and then they were through the gate.

Chaos assaulted her senses. Cries, shouting, the stampede of feet over a metal ramp and tiled floor, and alarms that's seemed to drill into her ears until it felt like she would go deaf.

The world spun sickeningly in and out of focus as the human carrying her charged farther into the room, shouting for help.

And against her will, she slipped into unconsciousness soon after that.


End file.
